Row As Controversial Priest Joins Episcopal Church, George Conger, Religious Intelligence, June 5, 2009

Row As Controversial Priest Joins Episcopal Church

By George Conger
Religious Intelligence
June 5, 2009

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=4540

The reception of Fr Alberto Cutie into the Episcopal Church followed a two-year period of reflection by the Miami Roman Catholic priest and TV host, and was not a spur of the moment decision by the priest or the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida, the Rt Rev Leo Frade has stated.

Row as controversial priest joins Episcopal Church

On May 28, Bishop Frade received Fr Cutie into the Episcopal Church, prompting outrage from the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Miami and titillation from the American press, who questioned whether Fr Cutie’s newfound appreciation of Anglicanism was prompted by a moving of the spirit, or the publication of compromising photographs of him in a Spanish-language tabloid.

The reception of Fr Cutie into the Episcopal Church has been given great prominence in the South and Central American media and provoked contradictory comments from Anglican bishops in the region.

Bishop Bill Godfrey of Peru called the publicity surrounding the secession unseemly while the Bishop of Puerto Rico noted that he had recently received two Roman Catholic priests and was in conversation with three others seeking to join his diocese.

On May 5, TVnotas published photos of Fr Cutie --- the host of the Archdiocese of Miami’s Spanish language Catholic Radio programme and a frequent guest on local television, in an amorous embrace with a woman identified as Ruhama Buni Canellis.

Archbishop John Favalora of Miami suspended Fr Cutie from his parochial duties pending an investigation, but on May 28 Ms Canellis and Fr Cutie were received into the Episcopal Church---and announced that after a two-year relationship, they were soon to be married.

Archbishop Favalora complained that Fr Cutie had not been released from his vows as a Roman Catholic priest and had not submitted to the discipline of the Church. “Bishop Frade has never spoken to me about his position on this delicate matter, or what actions he was contemplating,” Archbishop Favalora said. “I have only heard from him through the local media. This truly is a serious setback for ecumenical relations and cooperation between us.”

When Episcopal priests had been received into the Roman Catholic Church, the “Archdiocese of Miami has never made a public display” of the secessions, he said. “In fact to do would violate the principles of the Catholic Church governing ecumenical relations. I regret that Bishop Frade has not afforded me or the Catholic community the same courtesy and respect.”

Approximately 100 married American Episcopal priests have been received and then reordained into the Roman Catholic priesthood according to the terms of a pastoral provisions established by Pope John Paul II. The traffic from the Roman Catholic to the Episcopal ministry is somewhat larger, though most often motivated by issues of discipline surrounding clerical celibacy, rather than doctrine.

A spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese said Bishop Frade and Fr Cutie had known each other for “some seven or eight years” as the community of Cuban-exile clergy in Miami was a “small world.”

Writing to his diocesan clergy, Bishop Frade said the message of Fr Cutie’s decision to enter the Episcopal Church “is the very message that is central to our Church, its teachings, and its opportunities for growth and evangelism in the future.”

However, Bishop Godfrey on May 29 told Radioprogramas del Peru that changing churches was not like changing one’s shirt. It was “very said that such a talented priest with all that influence, who has represented the Gospel the way he did, didn't change in a more discreet manner, however he was the one who decided. I am not one to judge or criticize but he wounded many people who held him as an example.

“Each person must act according to his own conscience,” he added, “but I believe that it is very lamentable that it has happened this way” as it will “cause problems between the two churches.”

On May 30, San Juan’s El Nuevo Dia reported that five Puerto Rican Roman Catholic priests were “following in the footsteps of Alberto Cutie in the decision to abandon the priesthood in the Catholic Church to enter the ranks of the Episcopal Church.”

All have a common denominator, the Spanish-language paper said; “they are in love with a woman.”

The Episcopal Bishop of Puerto Rico David Alvarez said the five could not live up to their celibacy vow and preferred to marry and then exercise their priesthood as Anglicans.